The talk of the smartphone town is clearly centred around the so called Facebook phone. Technically, there is no Facebook phone as such given that this new software is analogous to an Android launcher and is called Facebook Home. This new software experience is coming to a store near you on a smartphone manufactured by HTC, cheekily called the First. The naming of this phone is apt given that it will be the first device to include the aforementioned Facebook Home launcher.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the phone will hit AT&T store shelves on the 12th of April and will be priced at a little under $100. The phone can be customized in four colours and isn’t the smallest or slimmest device around. HTC is marketing the phone as the best Facebook experience in the smartphone business. The Taiwanese company adds that this will be the only phone with pre-loaded Facebook Home, specially optimized for running the launcher. Although both HTC and AT&T didn’t reveal much of the specs, there were a few that did slip out.
The phone has a 4.3 inch 720p display and Android 4.1 Jellybean along with the Android Home launcher. The underlying hardware is powered by a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. AT&T’s 4G LTE is also accessible on the device. Filling out the essential specs list is an ample 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Rounding off the multimedia list is a 5MP rear and 1.6 MP front-facing camera. The battery capacity is listed at 2000 mAh, which is par for mid-range devices. Wi-FI, Bluetooth, NFC, FM radio and GPS are other services that this device will probably have in offer.
The HTC First is exclusive to AT&T in the US and will be available on Everything Everywhere and Orange in the UK in the weeks to come. Apart from the hardware, the phone will boast of special baked-in functionalities like receiving email through the Home interface. This phone is expected to fit right into the mid-range segment and is already available for pre-order on AT&T website. The HTC First along with the company’s flagship One could put the company back among the top competitors of the smartphone business.
